Return to the Past
by Yaraslava Rada
Summary: XANAs gotten more powerful. Will the Lyoko Warriors able to save the world without disaster? AU. JXA, YXU.
1. Chapter 1

We had figured out long ago that Aelita's memories, stashed in sector five, were the last of the keys to Lyoko. Knowing what and where, however, didn't make getting to them any easier.

This was officially the fifth try at getting the memories from sector five. Unofficially it was probably the ninth or tenth. With XANAs newfound access to the Internet it was much easier for him to create tough monsters. And with less time XANA spent focused on creating the monsters, the more time he had to plot and scheme. The more time he had to plot and scheme, the more time we Lyoko Warriors had to counter-plot and counter-scheme, leaving less time for things that were important, but not saving-the-world important.

Finally it seemed, we had a moment to try and get back some lost ground. But nothing is as it seems in Lyoko, from the virtual sea to the tricky oases in the desert sector, one really must see "Underneath the Underneath". But enough monologue, you'll see for yourself just how tricky Lyoko, and XANA can be.

As I was saying, we were on our fifth attempt at getting to Aelita's memories. XANA had been quiet for a day or so and we had time to rest up from our last fight. With restored energy and renewed hope we set out to the forest sector to get to sector five.

The strange white ball quietly took us to sector five. However as soon as the thing set us down, Jeremy spoke in a panic:

"Guys, trouble. XANAs just activated four towers. One in each region."

"What should we do?" Aelita asks. I can see the disappointment in her eyes and I'm sure Jeremy hear it in her voice. She really wants those memories back.

"Yumi, you and Ulrich go get those towers. Odd cover Aelita."

"But that's probably exactly what XANA wants us to do." I protest. "Dived and Conquor."

"We have no other choice. We are the strongest and now that we can deactivate towers Aelita can get her memories back." Ulrich says resting a hand on my shoulder.

"Fine." I spit pulling away. "But I'm warning you: This. Is a trap. There is no way he's quiet for days and then just as we enter sector five he activates four towers."

"I'm not saying it is, Yumi." Jeremy sighs. "In fact, I want everyone to be extra careful. Extra, extra careful. Quadruple careful for you, Odd.

"Come on!" Odd whines. "We'll be fine!"

"I hope so." I whisper before returning to the forest sector. The activated tower isn't far away and it's only moderately guarded: four bloks, two krabes, seven roachesters and a manta. Moderate by recent standards at least.

I'm proud to say I made it to the activated tower after loosing only 30 Life Points. Deactivation was easy. -"Yumi. Code…L.Y.O.K.O."

"Where to Jeremy?" I ask walking to the edge.

"Mountain sector, please." He says. I'm just glad it isn't the desert sector. But knowing Ulrich he headed there first.

Now, unfortunately there are six towers in each sector (excluding of course sector five). Each tower in a sector is connected to one tower in each other sector. That's why we never take one tower to the activated one. If we happen to be lucky and the tower we traveled from is linked to the activated tower, lucky us. Unfortunately XANA knows that and he picked four unconnected towers.

And just my luck, the tower I landed in at the Mountain Sector was the furthest tower from the activated one.

"You've got quite a trip, Yumi. Ulrich is just now deactivating his first tower, but his connected tower is closest to his second. Odd and Aelita have run in to surprisingly little resistance in Sector Five. But stay alert. I'll check back in a minute." Jeremy says as I gather my resolve.

As soon as I step out of the tower I take off in the direction of the activated tower. There are only a few minor pests here and there so I make pretty good time. I deactivate the tower easily and Jeremy informs me of a hidden activated tower near the tower I transferred from.

"So I have to go all the way back there?" I ask dreading the run.

"Yes, Yumi. I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner; the scan didn't pick up on anything unusual. But that's probably because it was focused on the four obviously activated towers.

I set about my journey quickly. A hidden tower couldn't be good news.


	2. Chapter 2

AN:/I'm taking a lot of liberties with this story. Here the Return to the past trips only go back one day and there are only 24 towers instead of the 41 there are in the show.

"Yumi, be super alert. Ulrich just informed me that XANAs got some new baddies, invisible ones."

Suddenly I feel eyes on me. Lots of them.

"Jeremy…I think I'm surrounded…"

"I am picking up on some energy signatures around you…maybe three. Be careful."

I see a shimmer of light to my left and immediately let my fan loose. It slices through something before returning. I hear an angry hiss and a black shadow materializes before my eyes…

I'll cut out the boring stuff. Needless to say it was a long battle. It lasted a good half-hour and by the end of it I had five Life Points left.

I reached the tower without further incident after that and managed to deactivate the tower. At the time it didn't seem strange that I hadn't heard from Jeremy again.

Knowing I would be useless in a fight I set about on the return trip and headed up to the laboratory.

Jeremy was frantically typing away at the computer and Aelita sat weeping by the elevator door.

"Aelita, what happened?" I ask moving over to her. I become painfully aware of Odd's absence.

"O-Odd…" She says with a hiccup. "He's been…deleted!" My eyes focus and I freeze.

"Deleted?" I echo, immediately feeling the loss of a younger brother.

"Apparently XANA messed with the virtulization program. If any one of us died in Lyoko, our data, our body and mind would be deleted for good." She said after Ulrich walked into the room.

"Isn't there…like a recycle bin?" I ask weakly looking to Jeremy.

"Lyoko doesn't work like that, unfortunately." Jeremy says as he stops typing. He takes his glasses off and wipes his eyes. "Once something's deleted…it's gone for good. I just searched through all of the super computer, there's no evidence Odd even existed."

"Then let's 'return to the past'" Ulrich says angrily.

"We can't…it wouldn't change anything. Not even a 'return to the past' to tomorrow could bring him back…"

"But he was here yesterday!"

"You guys don't realize how long you've been in Lyoko do you? I didn't realize it myself till I looked at the clock…it's been two days."

"There's no way!" I yell standing up.

"It's Sunday. That last hidden tower was creating a time-stasis field. Time moved differently for you in Lyoko and myself even. I didn't even notice the clock ticking faster…"

"There's no way…" I repeat sinking to my knees.

"You're right, Yumi. There is no way." Jeremy says defeated.


	3. Chapter 3

For months we mourned. The rest of the world though Odd had just run away. No one thought it was strange that Odd left Kiwi, and all of his belongings. But then again, their ignorance was a good thing. They didn't think to question how he died, since to them he wasn't dead. No one found out about the factory or the super-computer, or that Aelita's father had built it, or that XANA was killing the world.

XANA continued on mercilessly. His schemes were more and more difficult to thwart, but with time our strength grew with his.

By the time tragedy struck again, loosing people on earth to strange unexplainable causes was common. No one, except us, knew what was really the cause.

We were in Lyoko fighting to get to the activated tower. Aelita had already lost all her Life Points and was working with Jeremy as our second pair of eyes. The monsters were everywhere bombarding us from every direction. For every one we took down, ten or twelve replaced them. It was a loosing battle and we all knew it.

"Ulrich, Yumi, if you get an opening, take it." Jeremy said desperately. Not a moment later, an opening appeared and Ulrich took it.

Little did I know that would be the last time I saw him.

When I was devritulized I headed back up to the laboratory. I found those two in a similar state as when Odd died. I knew then Ulrich was gone.

"XANA messed with the towers. Aelita is the only one able to deactivate them now…"

XANA got away with his plan, but I knew in my heart his real plan had been to eliminate either Ulrich or myself.

His death was hard on everyone. But it killed me especially. I had decided that after this mission I would confess how I really felt towards Ulrich. 'Just friends' my ass.

But now it was too late. He was gone. Again XANA had taken one of the Warriors. He completely destroyed the 'return to the past' program. It took Jeremy three weeks to rebuild it. By that time it was way too late.

Aelita, Jeremy and I were officially the last of the Lyoko Warriors. We were the last of a quickly dying breed.


	4. Chapter 4

I've asked myself several times since Odd's death: Why haven't we just shut down Lyoko and XANA? Aelita has all of the Lyoko Keys; she is a human and has no connections to Lyoko, except her father (who was probably dead anyways); she has a human body and a human soul. Shutting down the Super Computer wouldn't damage her at all.

Then I thought about how Odd and Ulrich were dead. I realized that XANA had made things personal. We had to avenge their deaths. I wouldn't be able to live with myself otherwise. And I'm quite sure the others feel the same.

XANA became much more powerful after Ulrich's death. Or we became much weaker. We spent almost all of our time outside of classes in Lyoko. I would say, on average, we got about three or four hours of sleep a night. Our grades dropped like flies, and so did the student and teacher population. The earth was loosing a battle it didn't even know it was fighting.

When Aelita fell into the digital sea, and we learned that XANA messed with it so she would be permanently deleted, I thought Jeremy was going to kill me (and then himself). But he seemed to get over it quickly. Too quickly for him to not have one of his insane Einstein-esque ideas.

"So Jeremy," I say nonchalantly. "What's going on in that overly-large genius head of yours?"

"Oh, Yumi." He replies excitedly. "I've had this idea for a while now, since Odd…" He clears his throat, "it's the 'return to the past' program that's screwed us over. I was thinking: if I could modify it so it could send us further back then just one day…"

"…we could save everyone!" I finished now just as excited as him. "We could go back to the beginning, re-write the materialization program, start up the super computer, get all the keys and shut down Lyoko for good!"

"The only problem is XANA…you would need to keep him preoccupied long enough for me to modify the program and to start it up."

"No problem. Anything for those three." I say determined.

"Alright, I almost know exactly what I need to do. Go get some sleep I'll wake you when I'm ready."

I agree and head down to the scanner room. Once the war really started we brought down cots so we could have faster access to Lyoko. I lay down on my cot and quickly doze off…

"Yumi." Jeremy calls over the intercom sometime later.

"I'm up." I say jumping up from the cot.

"It's ready." For a moment I'm confused and then after remembering just what is ready I rush into the scanner.

"Beam me up, Jeremy!" I say excited and determined.

"Remember, keep XANA distracted."

"I know. I just hope what you're doing works."

"It will."

"I trust you, Jeremy," I say just before virtualization.

I fought my way to Sector five, keeping XANA plenty busy. For what seemed like hours I killed monsters left, right, front, back, above and below. It was quite the regimen. Finally Jeremy's voice echoed all throughout Lyoko:

"Return to the past…Now!"


	5. Epilogue

"OoohWAH!" five voices yell. Immediately a clamor rises in the small confined room of the Laboratory. It was right after the 'return to the past' trip; on one of the rare occasions we were all in the Laboratory before XANA attacked. My body was smaller, softer, and younger then I remembered it being. That's how I knew the trip worked. I turned to Jeremy immediately and grinned.

"You did it!" I yell hugging him as three voices join mine in wonder.

"Oh wow, I thought for sure I was a goner!" Odd says grabbing his chest. "Was it a dream?"

"No! The Virtual Sea! I'll be digitized forever! I'm sorry Jeremy!" Aelita says from the computer screen.

"Yumi!" Ulrich whispers to himself as he pulls his hand back.

Jeremy and I exchange looks.

"Do they really remember?" I question from my spot on the floor.

"Remember what?" Odd questions.

"What did we forget," Ulrich questions after Odd. "Wait, you were dead."

"And so were you!" Aelita says from the screen.

"Guys…don't you feel…younger?" Jeremy asks slyly.

"Well…yeah."

"More well-rested? Healthier, weaker? Less like you've been fighting a war and more like you're children again?" I question quickly, excited.

"I guess so."

"You three died... XANA managed to bug Lyoko. Jeremy modified the 'Return to the Past' program to bring us back to the beginning. We can start over!" I say standing.

"And this time defeating XANA will be a piece of cake." Jeremy says as he turns to the computer.

AN:/I know this story was kinda rushed, but I had the idea, and the bare-bones written when I lost interest. If anyone wants to take this story and flesh it out, feel free. Just leave a comment, and I'll add a note of who picked it up here. The only thing I ask is that you make a note that you adopted the story from me. Thanks. -YR


End file.
